Suppan - Is he an ace?
Dedided to start a new thread regarding Jeff Suppan and the Brewers’ Rotation.
Not sure what Jeff Suppan has to do to be considered someone “you’d feel comfortable having as the most reliable starter. Here are some numbers of pitchers since the All-star break of last year (including the playoffs)
Chien-Ming Wang 119 IP, 3.33 ERA, 12-4
Chris Carpenter 143 IP, 3.02 ERA, 11-5
Curt Schilling 117 IP, 4.09 ERA, 8-5
Jake Peavy 135 IP, 3.21 ERA, 10-7
Jeff Suppan 168 IP, 2.47 ERA, 12-5
Johan Santana 156 IP, 2.78 ERA, 14-4
John Smoltz 153 IP, 3.36 ERA, 14-5
Josh Beckett 134 IP, 4.56 ERA, 11-7
Roy Halladay 143 IP, 3.58 ERA, 8-4
Roy Oswalt 151 IP, 2.87 ERA, 13-4
I have the whole list if you are curious, but this is how Suppan matches up against the rest of the “Aces” in MLB over the last ¾ of a year. I would say that is a pretty significant sample size, no? He leads everyone in MLB in innings pitched and ERA, and is 4th in wins, behind Oswalt, Santana, and Smoltz.
I understand that Suppan performed poorly with the Red Sox in 2003 after they dealt Freddy Sanchez to get him for the stretch, and therefore a Red Sox fan may have a justifiable reason to discount Suppan’s ability, but after spending 3 years with Dave Duncan, and a couple months with Mike Maddux, he is a very different pitcher than in 2003. He may not have dominant “stuff” like most of the other aces, but after reading your comments regarding Sheets and Harden, maybe durability and consistency are more important than “Stuff”
May 6th, 2007 at 5:31 pm
Seems rather ace-like to me.
May 7th, 2007 at 1:57 pm
I forget - did you lump him in with the Gil Meches and Ted Lillys of the world as overpriced mediocre $10-$11 million per year players during the offseason?
No sarcasm here - honestly can’t remember if you were in that camp or not…
May 7th, 2007 at 7:45 pm
Convenient move to pull out his 2006 *pre*-All Star numbers of 96.2 IP and a 5.83 ERA (in the NL), 6-5. He’s an average pitcher over the course of his career (102 ERA+ with a 0.519 win %) - but if you’d prefer to skew the stats to show him as an ace, knock yourself out.
Hey, he pitched very well in the 2006 postseason and clearly helped the Cardinals win their WS (while *not* making any boneheaded baserunning errors). He’s clearly a serviceable pitcher. But um… yeah, I need something more than a hand-selected “3/4 of a year” for me to determine that a career-average pitcher has now become an “ace”.
Indeed, given his recent performance relative to his career numbers (um, a much better sample size), my concern would be that this 32-yr-old has a likely regression to the mean - such that his 2007 post-ASB numbers may be closer to pre-ASB 2006 than his current stat line.
Perhaps not - but check back with me at the end of 2007… at least a full *actual* season. If his 2007 numbers compare favorably with the guys you listed, then I will concede that he had an ace-like season… but I’m not holding my breath. And if you want to put a Pounder on Jeff Suppan maintaining his current numbers for the remainder of the season, I’d be happy to oblige.